The director of headache medicine and chief of general neurology at Yale Medicine spoke about the significance of having CGRP inhibitors in migraine treatment, and how eptinezumab fits into the treatment landscape.

By: Christopher Gottschalk, MD

Published: July 14, 2019

“We know that, for all the other prevention drugs for migraine we’ve had up until now, the adherence rates are terrible. If you prescribe a prescription for a daily medication, a month later, half of [patients] aren’t even refilling it, and 6 months later, half of those [who are] have stopped, too. That’s a bad landscape to start from.”

Despite having acute and preventive migraine medications available for some time, the adherence rates to these treatments can be essentially abysmal for a number of reasons, from adverse effects to poor response. However, with the recent introduction the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors into the market, there’s a bright light on the horizon.

Even more exciting is that one of the upcoming members of the class, eptinezumab, has shown success in a quarterly infusion dose, as opposed to the other members of the class, which are available in monthly doses. And while eptinezumab still needs regulatory approval, its unique dosing regimen presents a positive for patients in addition to its long-term and sustained efficacy in clinical trials, which has been particularly promising. At the 2019 American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Meeting, July 11-14, 2019, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a number of poster presentations highlighted that data.

While at the meeting, NeurologyLive® sat down with Christopher Gottschalk, MD, director, headache medicine, and chief, general neurology, Yale Medicine, to talk about the eptinezumab and the CGRP class, as well as the potential for these therapies to improve the lives of patients with migraine who struggle to remain adherent.